Murder in Washington
by Unintentional Emo Kid
Summary: When a series of disappearances across the WSU-West campus throws the community into uproar, it is up to Bella Swan to discover the truth behind an unnerving freshman. Can she solve the disappearance of her best friend and save her life?


Author's note: I am _not_ a Twilight fan. Basically, what I intend to accomplish through writing this is a complete revamping of the series. Edward doesn't sparkle. Bella is not a Mary Sue, she is not "OMG beautiful". I only post this in the Twilight section is because it's required. I ask you to flame elsewhere.

Also, beware, there will be character death. Familiar character names are Stephenie Meyer's.

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><p>The rain drizzled down on the campus of Washington State University as two twenty-year old girls pulled up to Mercer Hall on the west campus. Seattle was such a rainy city and the day the hall opened for returning students was no exception. Bella Swan and Lily Wolfe had been roommates since their freshman year after becoming close friends. It seemed that opposites really did attract, in their case. Both girls were top of their class in Phoenix, but Lily was sophisticated and outgoing, while Bella was shy and bookish.<p>

The two girls parked the car in the unloading area and took in as many of their boxes as they could, leaving the a few boxes of things they didn't need in the car, to be unpacked and brought in as needed.

"Damn campus security.." Bella mumbled under her breath, unloading the last of the boxes into the hall way, while Lily went to drop the car off in the parking garage. Bella grabbed a cart to try to get some of their things into an elevator, swearing as she dropped a box of books.

A laugh sounded behind her, and a freshman boy approached her.

"Do you need some help with those?" His voice was very smooth, as cliché as it sounded, like velvet. Bella rolled her eyes, making an almost disgusted sound.

"What do you think?" sarcasm bit through her normally polite tone, "These stupid boxes weigh a ton. _Why_ Lily chose to bring every book she owns, I will never know…" Bella paused to reconsider the boy, who was giving her the most confused look. She shook her head, realizing she'd been incredibly rude. "Sorry," she said quickly, "I'm not usually this rude; just when I'm really frustrated."

The boy laughed again, picking up several boxes at once. Bella ignored her surprise at the amount of weight the kid could lift at once. He was of slight frame, which made it even more surprising that he could lift three of Lily's boxes of books.

"I'm guessing these are Lily's books?" He asked, his voice not even sounding strained over the weight.

"Of course they are. She refuses to leave home without them." Bella shook her head, wondering why on earth Lily needed her personal library in a college dorm room, "I don't get it either", she said in reply to the blank look from the boy.

"I never did catch _your_ name", the boy said smoothly as the elevator came to a halt on the seventh floor.

"Bella," was her curt reply as she continued pushing the heavy cart toward room 714, pausing for a moment to dig out the room key.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Bella." Bella felt herself freeze as she turned to see him face to face really for the first time. There was something wrong about him that she just could not put her finger on. He put the boxes down on one of the beds, and turned to leave, "Did you have any more boxes down stairs?"

Shaking herself mentally, she realized the boy had been talking to her, "Uhh..yes. A few, but Lily should be here in a moment to help me with them. Thanks, err…now that I think about it, I never got your name, either."

The boy gave her this smile that gave her chills, it was very warm and inviting, but something about this boy was just wrong.

"I'm Edward," he said simply, "I'm in room 415 if you need any more help. Don't be afraid to ask." He turned and shut the door behind him.

Bella sat down on the bed, mentally shaken. She couldn't figure out what it was that made her so nervous about him. He was nice enough, helping her carry hers and Lily's boxes into their dorm. He wasn't unattractive, either, she noted, getting up to walk back to the elevators.

Just as she reached for the doorknob, the door swung upon again, causing her to jump and trip over a box just behind her.

"Ouch! Lily!" Bella breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that it was just her best friend and roommate entering the room.

Lily laughed as she saw Bella spread-eagle inside the door.

"Sorry, Bells. Didn't mean to scare you…or hurt you." She added as an afterthought, extending her hand to help Bella off the floor, "Oh, I have to tell you! This super-hot guy on the fourth floor helped me carry up some of my stuff. He said he met you in the entryway. Edwin, or something?"

Bella shuddered slightly as she nodded, "There's something not right about him."

Lily cocked her head to the side as she considered what Bella said, "What do you meant?" She gave Bella a confused look before unpacking her books onto the bookshelf.

"Nothing. Just he came off as a little weird, that's all." She shrugged, opening the nearest box of clothes and beginning to sort them into dresser drawers, "Do you know which box the stereo is in? I can't stand the silence."

Lily shrugged, "Uh, it's probably in one of the heavy boxes by the window, but I'll check in these ones."

Carefully, over the labyrinth of boxes covering their dorm room floor, Bella made her way to the boxes near the window, digging out the stereo and turning on one of the local stations they had preprogrammed the year before.

"Much better!" She said happily, setting it up on her desk. The next few hours passed in a companionable silence, each girl setting up their side of the dorm room the way they wanted it. Lily's, as usually was dominated by the amount of books she brought with her and Bella's was neat, tidy, almost minimalistic.

After they had all the boxes unpacked, the decided to head to the dining hall and get some dinner, talking about their fall semester schedules and the funny-looking freshman they encountered in the main dining hall.

The drive from Phoenix was always exhausting, but this year it seemed twice as bad without their parents to help them. As soon as dinner was over, they headed back to their rooms for the meeting with their R.A., who talked about the usual: no alcohol in the rooms, don't go into other people's dorms without permission and so on and so forth. The girls glanced between themselves, ready to fall asleep then and there.

Finally, their full of hot-air R.A. stopped talking. _Finally!_ The room collectively seemed to think as they rose from the seats in the floor common room.

Back in their rooms, too tired to speak, the girls got ready for bed, falling asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

The angry buzz of the 9 a.m. alarm came much too quickly for either girls liking. Bella grumbled as she reached over and shut off the alarm and swung herself out of bed. It was raining, as usual. Bella smiled to herself; she loved the rainy days in Washington state.

"Lils, get up!" She grumbled, not in the mood to fight with her best friend this early, "You'll miss your first class of the semester.

Bella headed off to their bathroom and washed her face. She came back into the room to grab some clothes for her shower and noticed Lily was _still_ in bed. Sighing, she decided that she was going to have to do this the hard way.

Bella put her clothes into the bathroom and filled a cup with cold water. Shaking her head, she knew she'd regret this decision later. She would give Lily one more chance to get out of that bed or she was going to be very, very wet.

"Lillian Olivia Wolfe." Bella said almost mischievously, "Get out of bed, _now_, or you're going to be very, wet and very unhappy."

Lily's eyes opened wide she sat up, glaring at Bella, "You wouldn't dare, _Isabella Marie Swan_."

"Now that you're awake, I don't have to." She said, taking the glass back to the bathroom, "I'm taking a shower. If you're still in that bed when I get out, I still have that glass of water!"

"I'm up, I'm up!" came Lily's annoyed voice from the adjacent room. Sighing, Lily threw back her covers and walked over the desk she used as a vanity table. She looked in the mirror and decided that she really just didn't care what she looked like today, and put her long red hair up into her signature ponytail. Looking again, she decided that make up wasn't necessary and went to make her bed. It was one of her every day habits; ingrained into her by her mother since she was four years old. She had just finished putting the pillows back on the bed when the bathroom door opened and Bella walked out, grinning evilly, and still carrying the glass of water. When she noticed that Lily was awake, she looked slightly crestfallen.

"Damn. Guess I don't get to use my water after all." She said, quickly gulping the contents of the glass.

"Nope. I'm awake." Lily grinned at her cheekily, "Want to go get breakfast as soon as I brush my teeth?"

Bella was just about to speak when her stomach answered for her by growling loudly. Laughing, she said, "Just let me get my bag together for my classes and then we can go."

A few moments later, the two girls headed back to the main dining hall, where the freshmen were still trying to figure out how to get their meal cards to work. The girls laughed and grabbed some bagels and cereal, joking about how the freshmen were going to be there all day.

After they finished their meal, they headed to their classes, separating at the entrance to the business building, where Lily's class was. Bella continued walking toward the main class building on campus, for her "Fascism and Nazi Germany" class. It was definitely not sounding like a pleasant way to start Monday mornings. She sighed as she walked into the classroom.

Glancing around at who was in the class, she froze. The guy from 415, Edward, was in this class. He looked up just as she remembered his name and stared at her. The way he looked at her, she thought, was like she was just a piece of meat. She calmly took a seat on the other side of the room, and tried to make it through the professor discussing the syllabus. She kept glancing over to him from time to time, and realized what it was about him that unnerved her: his eyes were coal black. Shuddering, Bella turned her attention back to the syllabus.

"Alright, that should be it for the day, any questions?" the professor called out of the din of packing up, but ultimately realizing that it was futile. Glancing at her cell phone, Bella noted that she had at least two hours before her next class, "Baroque Art." She sighed and sat down on a bench, reaching into her bag and pulling out _Mein Kampf, _which they had to read. Bella hated it; Hitler was way more psychotic than she particularly liked to read.

After awhile, she headed to her art class, which thankfully, was void of "Edward". In fact, this class was looking more and more interesting as the period went on.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and she and Lily spend the evening doing homework and chattering about the hot guys in Lily's classes.


End file.
